


I'll psy-KICK your ass

by nightfever



Category: Travelers (TV)
Genre: F/M, Psychic Abilities, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 18:06:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17288846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightfever/pseuds/nightfever
Summary: Just your regular neighbourhood Latina thinking that aliens are becoming the emerging superpower in a 'The World's End' -esque takeover due to a lack of answers to the questions presented by her telepathic abilities, then finding out that it's actually time travellers hoping to fix the future. Without blinking an eye, she takes it all in stride, poking holes and fun into their lives with her unusual yet comforting personality.





	I'll psy-KICK your ass

If she could step outside her head for head for a minute, Alicia Torres would be able to feel her younger siblings burning embarrassment as she danced along to the kpop blaring through her headphones.

Alicia jumped slightly when she heard Ange mentally screech at her to stop, which she didn’t see the problem for as she happened to be running through the routine without all the grand gestures and instead limited the scale of the moves - doing little wiggles instead of full hip rotations or bending her knees slightly to make up for dropping to them.

_ People are watching  _ Alexander warned, annoying Alicia enough that she stopped and whirled to see them at their table and pull an irritated face, moving her arms in an exaggerated manner, not exactly caring until the guy behind her cleared his throat. She looked up, seeing Trevor Holden peering at her with a remarkably old look in his eyes and an oddly wistful smile,

“You’re next,” he said with an inclination towards the counter.

Embarrassed, she flashed a quick smile and thanked him, stepping up to the genuinely smiling cashier,

_ She’s so cute _ .

Alicia flushed, feeling heat crawl up her neck and placed her order. While she waited for her shakes, Alicia turned to Trevor,

“Floats are worth selling your kidneys for, shakes are worth a leg,” she gave a sudden head tilt, “Maybe an arm,”   
“Well if they’re that good, I guess I’ll have to get one. What d’you recommend?” Alicia prodded though his thoughts, faking thoughts of her own, and found desire to finish ‘the mission’ despite the thinly veiled exhaustion that was visible the purple bags under his eyes,

“Maple blueberry I’d  _ maybe _ give a lung for but you look like death so I’d say dirty chai float for that sweet caffeine, however, I gotta say, coffee isn’t a replacement for sleep. Minimum 7 hours, you know, and sleep deprivation only makes you a liability to the team.”

She hadn’t meant to slip up and there wasn’t much stride to take it in, so Alicia gave what she thought was a caring smile and moved towards the counter, putting her headphones and resuming the blaring playlist in hopes of avoiding questions. Ignoring the music, Alicia fished around Trevor’s head, so caught up in listening to his thoughts she almost missed collecting her order.

She took her shakes and returned to her siblings, intently focused on not spilling a drop on the way, almost bumping into a tall blond, who settled a hand on her forearm to steady her, 

“You should probably pay a little more attention,” he warned with a half smile that almost melted Alicia into a puddle. She stared for second, mind completely blank and susceptible to any thoughts;

_ Is he trying to move to her? _

_ I’m technically a teenager so eating two of these would be fine _

_ Is she gay? _

The loudest, and the clearest thought sounded different to the blond’s voice but Alicia had a gut feeling that it was him;

_ Do I introduce myself with my traveller number or as Philip? _

Alicia gave an embarrassed smile, figuring too long had passed for an answer to be socially acceptable, nodding her head and raising her glass slightly,

“Thanks for - uh.”

Joining the pair at their table, she shimmied off her jacket in hopes of escaping the anxiety burning across her skin, and turned to them,

“I’m so stupid, I wanna set myself on fire. He was actually so cute and I just,” she huffed a deep breath, flexing her fingers to ignore the desire to rake them across her skin, “I’m actually gonna set myself on fire.”

Alexander slurped his float, eyes on his phone, “You know he walked into you on purpose?  _ He was actually trying to move to you _ ,”

“Cute booty, too,” Ange added with a wink, snapping Alicia into attention and sending her into a hurried scan of the restaurant. When she saw Trevor and Phillip, she gave a fleeting smile and passed her gaze along, pretending to be looking anywhere but at them. Standing, Alicia flicked Ange’s forehead as she told her she’d be back in five, dropping her phone down her shirt so her earbuds wouldn’t get tangled before swiftly turning to go to the toilets.

Pacing the small room, Alicia shook out her hands, trying to take deep breaths so she could think and overhear other’s thoughts clearly.

_ I’m just going into introduce myself as Traveller 3326 and ask what her team is up to - it goes against protocol 6 but she’s going against protocol 2 so technically I guess they cancel each other out. _

He was anxious, and also apparently one of the hip new aliens that superseded peoples’ consciousnesses but that could be used as an advantage to know whether or not it was time to bow down to the Earth’s potential new overlords or to just opt out and die.

Realising seduction was also an option, Alicia sighed as she adjusted her jeans, checking her appearance in the mirror and fluffing her hair before leaving. Her thoughts on whether or not alien dick would be worth it were cut short, however, when she saw the blond waiting in the narrow hallway for her,   
“I’m Traveller 3326,” he introduced, flashing Alicia a tight smile, “And, uh, I know I’m not supposed to but my team haven’t received anything from the Director in quite a while and I was wondering if you guys had anything?”   
Alicia offered a slight head tilt and a quirk of her lips, “What about Protocol 6, 3326? Don’t think the Director would be too happy,”

“Yeah? Well, I don’t think the Director would be too happy that you’re violating Protocol 2, which,  _ technically _ is worse a crime than us talking.” Philip looked slightly exasperated with a smallest hint of smug, irritation growing when Alicia tilted her face towards his, swaying toward him by a centimeter,

“Oh? And what exactly did I do?” For a moment, he thought she was flirting with him, his thoughts short-circuiting at her tone and the look on her face,

He huffed and turned, “Just - just meet me outside.”

 

It took a little longer than Alicia would’ve preferred for Ange and Alexander to finish their shakes but she waited without complaint, trying to come up with excuses to ditch her siblings. When they suggested they head home and stepped outside, she tossed a glance at Philip and Trevor over her shoulder, mouthing and holding up ‘five’ as she trailed behind the younger Torres kids. Once they turned and made it almost a block and a half, Alicia stopped, feigning a call from Monet and saying that she was going to grab something real quick but would be home soon - both parties knew she wouldn’t be, despite her best intentions.

Doubling back, she rejoined the pair, apologising for their food getting cold as they seamlessly changed direction and began walking toward her. Sighing and pulling her hands out of her pockets just to drop them, Alicia turned, having no choice but to follow them. They merely rounded the corner and took a few steps to reach their destination, a somewhat sketchy alleyway with windows too dusty to look through (Alicia initially thought they were fogged until she placed her hand against one as Phillip unlocked the door).

Trevor called out an apology for their lateness as Philip blamed Alicia, citing the violation of Protocol 2 as their reason for bringing the teen, who was more concerned with looking around but not obviously so.

MacLaren gave her a quick once over, “Who’s this?”   
In the few moments Alicia took to try and gently prod their minds, she found a vague answer, “I’m Traveller 3769.” She knew she hadn’t accidentally used their numbers, but she still prayed she hadn’t. “I’m apparently in violation in Protocol 2?”

Sarcastically, she turned on her heel to glance at Philip, brows jumping as she threw an accompanying look.

Alicia gave an appreciative glance over Marcy’s heels, “‘Apparently’? What did you do?” The blonde unwrapped her burger and took a bite,

“No clue,” Alicia answered with a shrug, then nodded at Marcy’s hands, “Put some fries inside - lil’ gift from the 21st.”   
In the corner of her eye Alicia saw as Carly paused and followed the odd direction, then tilted her head back after a bite.   
_ Food here is so heavenly - they don’t know just how lucky they are. _

Indignant, Philip rounded on the Latina, “You were leaking information on the Kennedy assassination!”

Alicia’s attention waived as she saw Poppy’s tank, which she wondered toward, intrigued “Which one? I was talking about John and Robert,”

MacLaren paused, thinking as he munched on his fries, “John and Robert? The Kennedy’s?”   
“Telling people  _ how _ the Kennedy’s  _ actually _ died goes against Protocol 2 -” Philip paused as he caught Alicia’s eyebrow jump and her mouth curve for a millisecond, “Where are your team?”   
Sighing, Alicia bounced her gaze from person to person before moving onto the other things in the admittedly large room, “Protocol 2,”

“Just this once.” MacLaren wanted to put his hands on his hips, but with his fingers greasy, he settled on gesticulating with a fry.

“Protocol 5. My host likes conspiracy theories anyway so it’s not exactly out of the ordinary for me to present ‘theories’,”   
Carly slurped her shake, “When was the last time you received orders from the Director?”

“Protocol 6.” It wasn’t exactly like Alicia could poke around their heads while they were interrogating her, and she hoped these aliens just killed the frauds in their midsts, or were at least decent ‘company’ because she was pretty sure they were getting frustrated with her empty answers.

Trevor appeared to see through her bullshit, stopping a fry midway to his mouth,

“Are you Faction?”

Alicia sighed, knowing the pit she was digging herself into would only get deeper and that she wouldn’t be able to dig herself out of this one if she continued with her evade and deflect game.

“Not Faction . Also not Traveler - what did I say? 3376? 3 -” she trailed off as she tried to recall the numbers, seemingly unbothered by the fact that MacLaren was now pointing a gun at her and that Carly was holding an even bigger gun. “I’m really bad with numbers.”   
“If you’re not a Traveler, then what are you?” Trevor’s now usual unbothered tone was gone, now firm as he demanded an answer,

“A regular Joe. I’m human.” When things went the other way, Alicia marvelled at her ability to keep her shit together and wondered how she even had anxiety when she had a gun pointed at her and she still continued her conversation, then recalled her inability to ask for directions in grocery stores.

“A regular Joe wouldn’t be as calm as you if they had a gun in their face,” Marcy pointed out, Alicia shrugging impassively as she considered the psychology behind why she didn’t feel bothered.

“Fatalism? Nihilism? To be honest, I have a chemistry test tomorrow so at this point I feel like death isn’t too bad an option,” Alicia wondered if they were actually going to shoot her and felt bad for the thought, “Are you gonna shoot me? Because if you are, I wanna hold the tortoise first.”

MacLaren lowered his gun and pinched the bridge of his nose as Carly sighed.

“If you’re not a Traveler, then how do you know about the Traveler program?” Marcy didn’t lower her gun, raising it slightly as Alicia suddenly whirled around and reached into Poppy’s tank,

“Fun fact; severe inbreeding in tortoises can cause super  _ not great _ deformities in shells, such as holes,” her tone switched as she focused on the tortoise a mere inch from her face, “You’re adorable. I want fifty of you and I would lay down my  _ life _ for you - lo entiendes, amigo? Ride or die, esse.”

Now Alicia felt that burning adrenalin as she noticed the eyes on her, “My cousin has tortoises but I don’t see them that often because the first time I did, I slammed my face into their tank. Not my best moment but would def do it again. I’m just annoyed he called one ‘ _ Turtle _ ’,”

Philip’s nose scrunched, “Turtle?”   
“That’s irrelevant,” MacLaren threw a hand in the air, “How do you know about the Traveler Program?”

He shifted uncomfortably under Alicia’s gaze until Carly snapped her fingers in the Latina’s face, then stepped closer to get a clearer view of the teenager’s mental vacation. Suddenly, the faux blonde blinked and shook her head, then looked down at Poppy held tightly toward her chest.   
“Uh, a wizard told me. His name was Diddly the Destroyer and he was from a, uh, Pokétown and he was going to his first trainer battle,” Marcy gave a huff as Alicia tried her best to look innocent - she had reasoned that they wouldn’t kill her as long she held the tortoise.

Trevor sat down on a stool, bouncing his foot and lacing his fingers together as he hunched over in thought. Alicia pointed out that hunching is ‘ridiculously bad for you’, then flushed and visibly retreated into herself slightly before raising Poppy to eye level and inspecting her closely. Without regard to the fact she was a threat, Alicia casually strode to the fridge and grabbed the head of lettuce, pausing when she realised she had both hands full.

“What are you doing?” Carly was, of course, growing tired of Alicia’s round about nonsense, as were the rest of the team,

“I’m feeding Poppy,” the Latina replied matter of factly, peeling a layer off the lettuce head to rinse and cleanly chiffonade.

Trevor sat up, “How do you know her name’s Poppy?”

“I’m getting either a Poppy or a Lola vibe from her.” Promptly, Alicia switched off her attention and focused solely on the tortoise, holding a strand above the reptile’s head to watch her eat.

Fed up, Philip snatched Poppy, albeit carefully, and her lettuce away from Alicia,

“You can see her when you answer our questions. How do you know about the Traveler Program?”

“Alright - I’ll tell you what you want to know if you tell me what I want to know, capice?”   
MacLaren stared at Alicia, dumbfounded in her brass to ask for information before Carly folded her arms and agreed to her terms.

“I’m a tele-whatever. I read minds. How does the Traveler Program work?”

MacLaren took a sip of his beer, “Fine - don’t tell us, but don’t expect us to let you go anytime soon.”

Alicia rolled her eyes and groaned slightly, “Hey,  _ Grant _ \- doesn’t Kat want you home before 8 so you guys can have dinner?  _ My question for you is how does the Traveler Program work? _ ”

“How do you know about Kat?”   
“The same way I know that  _ you _ want to see your technical son Jeff Junior,  _ you’re _ thinking about Ms. Day,  _ you’re _ worried about David and  _ you _ want to sleep. I’m a telepath and I want answers. What is the Traveler Program and how does it work? And I have a right to ask multiple questions because I provided  _ examples _ .” Alicia looked startlingly young in her smugness, leaning back on a foot and crossing her arms as she looked to MacLaren, the obvious leader.

“That’s impossible.” Marcy folded her arms, absolute, as Alicia idly scratched her jaw,   
“I can give you a theory if you tell me what the Traveler Program  _ is and how it works _ .”

Carly huffed an irritated and resigned breath, “We’ll tell you what the Traveler Program is and how it works if you tell us how you know all that stuff about us.”

Wiping her palms on her thighs, Alicia walked over to Trevor, asking if he meditated (which she already had a vibe for but just wanted to double check).

Clearing her throat, she placed her palms over his temples and instructed him to empty his mind (of course, using a ‘spooky witch voice’).

“You can keep your eyes open if you want, but unless you have a stash of eyedrops I wouldn’t recommend.”

Ignoring as Philip asked what she was doing, Alicia focused on guiding Trevor through memories, “Picture your favourite memory; it can be anything just don’t describe it, just picture it.”

_ Blue and dark. With only a spotlight of sun against the press of snow against hexagonal windows, the room was hidden in shadows. Inside the dome, it smelled musty and -  _

 

Alicia pulled away suddenly, stumbling and landing almost exaggeratedly on the floor with an empty, bewildered look on her face. Standing, she adjusted her jeans and gave Trevor an odd second glance, “I feel like I’ve aged 70 years.”

Turning her attention away from Trevor, and hopefully away from the image that was unexplainably unsettling still flashing behind her eyes, she asked Carly to put her gun down and stand with her, then instructed her to clear her thoughts as she placed her palms on her temples.

“Alright, what’s the point of -” Trevor cut MacLaren off as the teenager ran through a memory that wasn’t his - he didn’t know the blond boy, nor why he was climbing through a window, but he could swear that he had seen him before.

Carly frowned when Alicia released her, beginning to ask the Latina what she had done when Alicia cut her off and ordered her to describe what she had seen.

“It looked like snow was covering the shelter - which is before my time, and before yours  _ so how do you know that _ ?” Carly rounded on Alicia,

Trevor spoke up, looking apprehensive as he rubbed his hands together, “I saw that. The last sunlight before my shelter was completely covered with snow. Who’s that boy? How - how did you do that?”

“I’m a telepath. I can see memories and read thoughts. I took one of Trevor’s memories and gave it to Carly. I also gave Trevor one of  _ my _ memories as a countermeasure for evidence that I, infact, do have psychic powers.”

Marcy looked unconvinced, “So you’re trying to convince us that you have telepathic abilities and can project thoughts. Tell me, what am I thinking now?”

“You want to go home to David and ask how his day’s been? I thought we’ve already been through this. Infact -” Alicia strode to Marcy, then paused as she tried to recall a clear memory to show her. Then, settling on a memory that made no sense without explanation, she pressed her palms to Marcy’s temples.

When Marcy took a step back, she looked at Alicia,

“‘ _ Love means nothing _ ’ -”   
“Krispy Kreme, roughly 10pm, tall Arab dude says ‘love has no value in the real world’.  _ Yeah _ ,” Awkwardly, Alicia watched as she pulled her foot across the floor, “My friends and I spent all our money on sushi but we wanted donuts so they tried to get me to seduce the guy.” She shrugged. “Have I convinced you now?”

“No! You can’t seriously think she’s psychic?” MacLaren looked irritated, and having his hands on his hips only completed the look,

“If you ask anyone on the street if they think time travel exists and pretty sure most people would say no,” Philip smoothly objected,

“But telepathy?”

“Wait, hold up, _ time travel _ ? Ah, fuck, I wanted aliens,” Alicia sounded like a petulant child, even to her own ears, and sighed, tilting her head back and wondered if she wanted aliens for the sake of aliens or as an excuse to evacuate the earth via dying.

“You thought we were aliens?” For some reason, Trevor sounded offended, and Alicia let out an indignant and disappointed sounding ‘ _ yeah _ ’.

“Anyway - I still wanna know what the Traveller Program is and how it works,” Knowing she wasn’t going to get probed or ripped in half, Alicia was a little more confident in her pursuit of whatever the Traveler Program was, “I’m going to assume it’s the Program responsible for sending people back in time, assumingly what makes people, uh, eligible for selection?”   
Philip looked to Trevor and smiled.

“So obviously the Director is in charge, then they what? Go through all historical records of our lives and deaths? I mean - the internet would provide all the necessary information you would need to assimilate into society but how do you choose when to take over a consciousness? And isn’t that unethical?”

“The host is taken over by a Traveler moments before their historical death.” MacLaren looked tired as he explained this, scrubbing a hand down his face and turning to Marcy to communicate silently,

“ _ Don’t wipe my memory _ ! I have a maths test that I  _ actually _ studied for and I can’t fail because I already flopped the last one and my family are _ pretty _ disappointed in me.”

Alicia had an odd way with words, sometimes not making sense but the inflection behind her words paired with her body language and the facial expressions she pulled oftentimes helped get her point across. Helpfully, she offered to come in after school with a shrug, then, when Carly dubiously echoed the genuine offer to return for a mindwipe, Alicia shrugged,

“I don’t really remember things well, anyway, so it wouldn’t be that big of a deal but I really do need to pass this test. However, I offer 24 hours of my memories in exchange for nanites -” Alicia shrugged and laughed good naturedly, “I get really bad migraines but my health insurance is pretty shit so there’s no point chasing it up because my doc’s always say it’s hereditary, which admittedly, it is. But it also really sucks and isn’t fun to deal with,”

“So your migraines are worth nanites?” MacLaren really had a way with words to show his disapproval in a manner that somehow stung - like a disappointed uncle.

“My great-grandpa had his eyeballs surgically removed and I - have you seen that movie trope where someone goes insane and just repeatedly smashes their skull into something until they die? That’s what it feels like, but more  _ stabby _ and - uh, less  _ fun _ ,”

“He had his  _ eyes _ removed?” Philip had a look of disgust as he processed this, opening his mouth to ask a follow up question when Alicia scrunched her nose as she recalled the tidbits about him she had heard.

“Yeah. So if the nanites can fix whatever is going on inside my head that would be lit.

Also  _ time travel _ \- how does it work? Does it use an Einstein-Rosen bridge? Is time Jeremy Bearimy? Because I’m assuming the whole reason you guys are  _ here _ is because the future is shit and this is the point where it stops being reversible.

But I just want to ask - if you’re preventing things from happening, you  _ are _ putting in counter-measures, right? Let’s say a, uh, an asteroid collides in timeline A, but you stop that in timeline B, aka the timeline where you guys are sent back, so there  _ isn’t _ an asteroid collision in timeline C, which is the timeline where you guys travel back to the - oh my god, that’s why they call it the 21st.”

For a moment, Alicia looked stunned, then resumed her long winded ramble, “Anyway, timeline C is where you guys come back to the 21st and there  _ isn’t _ an asteroid collision - different to timeline B where you travel back but it’s ambiguous as to whether or not there’s a collision but it’s  _ assumed _ that the collision happens. So, in the future you already know the effect of said asteroid, but have you put in place things that - I don’t wanna say fix, but at least help cope with what happens just as a failsafe?”

Philip gave a small pleased smile as MacLaren pulled her thoughts into coherancy “You said you were failing math?”

Alicia shrugged, giving a an abashed smile and excused her confusion with numbers, her smile dropping as her phone vibrated in her pocket. She turned off to the side slightly as she answered the call in Spanglish - saying that she was at Monet’s, that she would be home in 20 minutes and had 5 on her before hanging up with a ‘ _ yeah, see you _ ’. In all, the call took just under 30 seconds.

Marcy sighed, uncrossing her arms and going to grab her coat, “So you’re coming back tomorrow?” Alicia gave an enthusiastic and oddly endearing ‘ _ yup _ ’, Marcy looking to MacLaren with a tired look of moral wrongness and told the teen she would see her tomorrow.


End file.
